He then rejoined the "Götz von Berlichingen" division, now promoted to the rank of Unterscharführer (loosely "junior squadron leader"), and was sent back to France.
Following frontier changes mandated by the Soviet Union and her allies Poland had moved and Danzig had become Gdańsk, so that when Bartsch was released in June 1945 there could be no question of going home.
Passing his Abitur back in 1940/41 would, under peacetime conditions, have opened the way to university-level education, and in 1946, with the war over, he enrolled at the Martin Luther University in Halle.
Formed less than three years earlier, the SED was by this time well on the way to becoming the ruling party in the territory that would be relaunched, in October 1949, as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
[1] He received his doctorate in agriculture in 1951 in return for a comparative study (published in book form few years later) of four different dairy cattle breeds in North-west Europe.
Nevertheless, the fact that Bartsch, still aged only 39, was at the same time elected as a candidate for membership of the Central Committee's inner caucus, the Politburo, indicates that within the nation's power structure his career trajectory was still strongly on the up.
[7] The appointment led to him being described by one (unsympathetic western) commentator as the boss of East Germany's "newly founded Supreme Agricultural Authority" ("neugegründeten obersten Landwirtschaftsbehörde").
[9] Reports appeared in western media at the same time that he had been excluded from the Central Committee of the SED and released from his position as a deputy minister "because he had concealed his membership of the Waffen-SS and thereby greatly damaged the party".
The article referred to here concluded with the reassuring thought that under these circumstances there was no reason for Comrade Bartsch to give up all hope that he might one day be "rehabilitated".
[8] There was a well worn path to be followed for East German politicians who found themselves suddenly disgraced and excluded from office: Karl-Heinz Barstch played his part, with a carefully drafted statement of remorse: "Unfortunately I did not have he courage, when I joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1949), nor subsequently, to come clean about my membership of the Waffen-SS".
[c][1] Between April 1963 and February 1965 Bartsch worked as head of animal breeding at VEG Groß Vielen (Waren), another agricultural co-operative that had originated as a large private estate.
He was identified in the Stasi files by the cover-name "Eckart", and was of particular interest to the authorities because he provided "material" about Western European scientists and academics.